“Normal” America celebrates (even as Lefties rail against our president). Here is Ken Blackwell writing at The Patriot Post:
Today, America dominates the globe. It’s easy to forget that the United States almost didn’t exist.
In 1776, a rag-tag group of British colonists met in Philadelphia. Resistance to British exactions had begun more than a decade before. Armed resistance broke out the previous year.
Angry over British restrictions on its liberties and outraged that its mother country was warring against her own people — and had rejected the latest conciliatory petition sent to London — the Continental Congress declared independence. On July 4th, delegates signed the Declaration of Independence, which became one of history’s most recognizable milestones in advancing human liberty.
The Declaration includes some of the English language’s most famous writing: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Drafter Thomas Jefferson captured the essence of those later known as Americans, while oppressed peoples around the world later turned to the Declaration when calling for their freedom.
However, the document also included a bill of particulars. It not only asserted a right of revolution but explained why Americans were justified in separating from their colonial parent. To defeat the world’s most powerful nation, the colonists needed allies. Ultimately, French support proved critical.
Today we admire the Declaration as historic literature. But at the time it was a profoundly revolutionary document. The 56 men who affixed their signatures were committing an act of treason. If their campaign failed, they could, and likely would, be hung. After all, they were instigating rebellion in all 13 colonies. When John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, affixed his supersized signature, he supposedly declared: “I guess King George will be able to read that.”
Read more: The Patriot Post
